This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on January 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: JobStreet Malaysia’s latest survey has indicated that digital skills are highly sought-after today, in tandem with the national shift to a digital economy and Industrial Revolution 4.0.

The company revealed this during the unveiling of its Job Outlook 2019 Survey yesterday, which found that 96% of the employers surveyed perceive that the talent landscape will change with the shift to a digital economy, due to rising demand for talents with digital skills that are in limited supply in the market.

The survey covered 365 employers, as well as 20,343 employees aged 18 to 60 and above who hold positions ranging from entry-level to directors and above.

“Finding the right skill set is the number one priority. Digital transformation is inevitable. As we get more globalised, companies have to embark on their digital transformation journeys,” JobStreet.com country manager Gan Bock Herm told reporters.

About 43% of the employers surveyed have embarked on a digital transformation journey and are looking to grow their talent pool with skilled talent to drive business growth specifically in areas such as information and technology (IT), computing, digital marketing, and research and development.

For employees, this means more job opportunities but they need to be equipped with the right skills. Employers, on the other hand, need to adopt a more proactive and innovative approach to recruitment.

“Right now, there is a limited number of talents so employers need to be more proactive in sourcing for suitable candidates,” Gan added.

Meanwhile, 90% of the employers surveyed forecast that most recruitment activities will take place between January and March this year, followed by 76% in the months of April to June.

“Based on our survey, competition for hiring will be higher in the first half of this year. With very high respondents saying in the first three months of this year, they will see a huge influx of jobs ,” Gan said.

 The top five core work-related digital skills sought after by employers are: digital marketing, software and application development, e-commerce, big data and analytics, and database management.

Gan also highlighted that employees now need to acquire certain specific qualifications to secure IT-related jobs. “For example in cybersecurity, you may be an IT engineer or software engineer, but cybersecurity is a very niche area so you probably need some experience and specific qualifications to be an expert,” he added.